The trial for the slaying of 3-year-old Porchia Bennett has often left her three older sisters in the shadows. But the jury has now had the chance to meet the other victims in this tragic case.
As the girls testified via videotape in court last week, they recounted shocking tales of alleged sexual and physical abuse.
This week, the children’s grandfather, Oliver Bynum, testified that he knew nothing of the abuse, but the girls’ young cousins said they witnessed multiple beatings.
The murder trial for Porchia’s so-called caretakers Jerry Chambers, 32, and the victim’s aunt, Candice Geiger, 20, is nearing the end of its second week. Porchia’s mother, Tiffany Bennett, 29, is being tried at the same time on child endangerment and conspiracy charges for leaving her children in the couple’s care.
The testimony of Porchia’s sisters, ages 6, 8 and 12, was played in court May 4.
Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes issued an order barring the press from releasing the names of the surviving siblings, who were found beaten in their home at 1705 S. Fifth St. on Aug. 17, 2003 – the same day Porchia was found beaten and suffocated between a wall and a mattress.
Clutching a Nemo stuffed doll, the 6-year-old – 4 at the time of the alleged abuse – said that Chambers and Geiger beat her and her sisters. She also testified that Chambers fondled her and made her do the same to him when he and Geiger were lying naked in bed.
Her 12-year-old sister testified in graphic detail that Chambers raped her. When Assistant District Attorney Richard Sax asked the girl – 10 at the time of the alleged rape – how it made her feel, she replied, "mad."
Chambers’ attorney, Charles P. Mirarchi 3d, maintains his client is innocent of the rape. Mirarchi said there is no record of the girl reporting the attack to her school nurse or teacher at Kirkbride Elementary,Seventh and Dickinson streets, and pointed out that the first official report came the day Porchia was found dead.
The siblings described living with their caregivers as "bad." When prosecutor Sax asked the youngest girl why it was bad, the child said that Chambers "throwed me down the basement."
When Sax asked the 12-year-old how bad it was, she replied, "a nightmare," adding that she and her siblings didn’t eat much and were whipped by both Chambers and Geiger with extension cords, belts and broomsticks.
The child also testified that Chambers forced her to eat "dog poop" and locked her in the basement with his two pit bulls.
But it wasn’t always that way, according to the 12-year-old. She testified that when she and her sisters first went to live with Chambers in the fall of 2002, he treated her fine.
The judge asked the girl to pick a holiday as an indicator of when things got bad, and she said July 4 – a few weeks before her sister was found dead. Mirarchi maintains that Chambers’ change in behavior was due to drug use. The defendant was twice ruled incompetent to stand trial.
OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS took the stand in court. Chambers’ young nephews, Jayshawn and Jayshine Chambers, testified last week that they saw their uncle and Geiger beat Porchia and her sisters.
The boys are the sons of Jerry Chambers’ twin brother, Jayson "J-Roc" Chambers, who was convicted in December of raping his 11-year-old goddaughter and indecently assaulting her 14-year-old sister in 2003. He was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison.
Jayshine, 9, and Jayshawn, 11, testified to abuse they witnessed when Jerry and the girls lived with Jayson and his sons on the 600 block of Dickinson Street before moving to Fifth Street.
Some of the more compelling testimony – and the prosecutor’s argument that the tragedies might have been avoided – came Tuesday from the siblings’ grandfather, Oliver Bynum.
Bynum raised the 12-year-old for most of her life and the girl lived with him on and off from September 2002 to March 2003, Sax said. But after March 2003, Tiffany Bennett ordered him not to have any contact with her. In a letter shown in court that was dated March 25, 2003, Bennett made her wishes known to Kirkbride Elementary. Bynum said he went to the school four times in an attempt to reconcile the situation.
The grandfather also claimed he visited Chambers’ house "three times a week" and was denied access to his grandchildren. Sax said Bynum was the only loving, constant force in the siblings’ life, but that his attempts at providing a nurturing environment were squashed by Bennett.
Under cross-examination from Mirarchi, Bynum, of South Philly, testified that the 12-year-old and her sisters showed no signs of abuse. And the 12-year-old never gave him any indication that something was wrong while she was living with Chambers.
"Had I known [of the abuse], I would have kicked that door in myself," Bynum said. The grandfather did not know that the 12-year-old had been allegedly raped.
Pointing to Chambers across the courtroom, Bynum said, "If I had, I would be sitting over there."
